WHAT IS AN INSIDER THREAT?
It is a security breach risk situation posed by people from within an organization. An insider can be a current or former employee, or a third party such as a business partner or contractor, who has authorized access to sensitive information and can divulge, modify or delete data records.
Some of the security controls and best practices that can help prevent and detect insider threats:
1.Regular risk assessments:
– Organizations must identify and evaluate the potential dangers of a security incident, determine its critical assets and implement appropriate risk management measures to protect those assets.
2. Require identity authentication:
– Implementing two-factor (2FA) or multifactor authentication (MFA) will fortify security controls by verifying user identity via multiple unique factors before granting access to systems or sensitive data records.
3. Access and permission management:
– Granting only the bare minimum user permissions or systems and data access required to perform a job reduces the risks of unauthorized access, especially those that can result from exposed or stolen privilege credentials.
4. Security awareness and insider threat training:
– Organizations should periodically educate employees on data security, security policies and procedures, and common security threats.
5. Establish ‘baseline’ activities or behaviours:
– Establish this within your organization to take advantage of automation and machine learning.
6. Ongoing/continuous monitoring:
– Monitoring employee online activity as well as any suspicious behaviour can help detect threats and prevent security incidents from occurring.
7. Data backup and recovery solutions:
– Organizations should implement efficient backup and recovery solutions to avoid costly downtime and severe consequences of insider threats.
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To find out how you can efficiently mitigate and prevent insider threats to secure your organization’s data, network and employees.
